Opinion: Business leaders want 100 percent clean energy bill

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More solar photovoltaic cells, like these perched atop the city-owned Municipal Service Center, at 7101 Edgewater Drive, would be added to the power grid as the incoming East Bay Clean Energy Authority takes the reins from PG&E in providing electricity throughout Alameda County. Photo by Garrett Fitzgerald/City of Oakland

This week, state legislators have the opportunity to make California the largest economy in the world that is committed to 100 percent clean energy. Senate Bill 100 would set a target of 100 percent renewable energy for California’s electric grid by 2045. Doing so would hang out a “we’re open for business” sign that would attract entrepreneurs and established companies alike, and create a clean energy business boom like nothing our state has seen before.

This prediction is based on experience. When California passed landmark climate and clean energy legislation in 2006, hundreds of clean-tech entrepreneurs flocked to the state to set up shop. Following tech-industry custom, some failed. But many succeeded. And they built a solar industry responsible for more than 1 million solar roofs across the country.

Now comes SB 100, making this potentially the biggest market moment in clean energy history. You have the world’s sixth-largest economy saying, “We’re all in on advanced energy.”

This clear strategic intent will be catnip to entrepreneurs. Clean tech companies big and small will find California an irresistible place to invest and innovate. Employees and the economy as a whole will benefit, too — and that’s before we even consider the environmental benefits.

The San Francisco/Oakland/Freemont metropolitan area hosts more than 72,000 clean energy jobs, while San Jose/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara home to 34,000 advanced energy jobs. If SB 100 becomes law, we can expect more. A lot of these jobs focus on innovation: the Bay Area has become the number one producer of green-tech patents in the state, just ahead of Silicon Valley, generating a combined 3,000 green technology patents last year. Passing a 100 percent clean energy law would boost that number, as well.

SB 100 would benefit not just our corner of California, but the entire state. We already have the largest advanced energy economy in the United States, with more than half a million Californians working in electric vehicles, renewable energy, and energy storage.

One-sixth of the nation’s advanced energy workforce works in California. Our state is home to America’s largest solar workforce. And we attract two-thirds of all of the nation’s clean tech investment, to the tune of almost $1.7 billion in 2016 alone.

All this economic activity didn’t happen by accident. California’s record of innovative energy and climate change policy has created fertile ground for our vibrant clean tech sector.

And whenever California has set clean energy goals, we have exceeded expectations. In fact, the current Renewables Portfolio Standard goal— which calls for 50 percent renewable energy by 2030 — is beginning to look a little too easy, since we already reached 29 percent renewable generation for electricity last year.

So we welcome SB 100 provisions that would accelerate existing goals, changing the 50 percent target date to 2026, and setting a goal of 60 percent renewable by 2030. That will encourage a steady flow of investment and innovation as our state pushes toward 100 percent clean power.

SB 100’s 100 percent target might look like a stretch now, but the wind is at our backs in terms of technological advances, cost curves, and trends in the worldwide energy market. By setting a stretch goal, we set ourselves up to crush it.

SB 100’s bold “open for business” market signal can’t help but drive an enormous amount of business development. And that will keep our region and our state out front, leading the nation and the world toward a clean energy future.

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Danny Kennedy is a clean-tech entrepreneur Danny Kennedy and managing director of the nonprofit California Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF). Tim McRae is vice president for energy for the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which represents more than 400 firms on issues, programs and campaigns that affect Silicon Valley’s economic health and quality of life.